What You Should Know About SEO Right Now
Search engine optimization or SEO is no longer only relevant to just digital marketers or business owners. It’s become relevant to almost everyone in one way or another.
Consider, for example, people who have started businesses renting out their RVs on peer-to-peer marketplaces. Having an understanding of SEO best practices is essential to help them ensure they’re putting their product in front of the people who want it.
Maybe you’re someone who offers freelance services to clients, and you want to rank higher when people search in your area for your particular skill set. Perhaps you sell your items on a craft marketplace and want people to find you.
These are just a few of the many reasons SEO might be relevant to your life, but it’s a scenario that’s always changing. Below are some things to know right now about SEO.
Title and Meta Description Tags are Still Important
As much as there is change regarding SEO, some things stay the same. Two things that have remained largely the same in recent years are the importance of title and meta description tags. You want people to be able to determine what it is you’re offering accurately.
As an example, if you were creating a title for a listing site, you want to make sure that it’s descriptive, concise and keyword focused.
Also, the description tags are displayed in search results for most things, so consider it like your very first introduction and advertisement that your targeted audience is going to see. Of course, you only have around 160 to 200 characters to make an impression, so put some effort into making it good.
Localized Search
Important for a lot of people is integrating location-based keywords. For example, if you have a small business that’s brick and mortar only, or you’re listing a property you’re going to want people to know the location.
Keep that in mind as you’re creating titles, and try to include the location at the start of your titles if possible.
Create Value
One of the top things you can do to improve your SEO strategy is to make sure you’re adding real value to the life of your audience.
To determine how to add value, you can look at your most popular current content, do some research on your targeted audience, or look at what your competitors are doing that seems to be performing well.
Recognize the Importance of Reviews
Finally, you want to make sure you’re valuing reviews as much as your audience is. People tend to trust online reviews as much as they do a recommendation from someone they know personally. You want to ensure that regardless of why you have an online presence you’re monitoring your reputation.
There are tools that will allow you to get alerts if someone mentions you or your brand, and you can then more easily respond to reviews wherever they may be.
It’s not just the recommendation factor that makes reviews so relevant. According to Google, having positive, quality reviews is going to factor into search rankings, particularly when it comes to local searches.
